We first brought you coverage of this story back in April, and as shocking as it was, I’d assumed we’d pretty much heard the end of it. In case you missed it, here’s the short recap:

When 8th grade Jared Marcum got dressed for school on Thursday he says he had no idea that his pro-Second Amendment shirt would initiate what he calls a fight over his First Amendment rights.

It was the image of a gun printed on Jareds t-shirt that sparked a dispute between a Logan Middle School teacher and Jared, that ended with Jared suspended, arrested and facing two charges, obstruction and disturbing the education process, on his otherwise spotless record.

By the end of the story, Jared was back in school and his parents were working with local authorities to get this incredibly stupid exercise in oppression off of his record. That should have been the end of it, but apparently the local powers that be are planning to take this situation to its illogical extreme.

Suspended and arrested after refusing to change his NRA shirt. Today, 14-year-old Jared Marcum appeared before a judge and was officially charged with obstructing an officer.

A $500 fine and up to a year in jail, that’s the penalty that Jared could face, now that a judge has allowed the prosecution to move forward with it’s obstructing an officer charge against him.

“Me, I’m more of a fighter and so is Jared and eventually we’re going to get through this,” Jared’s father Allen Lardieri said. “I don’t think it should have ever gotten this far.”

Jared’s dad is being a lot more calm and reasonable about this than I think I could manage, but that’s probably to the boy’s benefit. At this point, the “defense” is still treating it as a misinterpretation of school policy, and not some sort of civil rights violation. But if it goes much further, it’s not hard to imagine them bringing that aspect of it up in court. And if they do, the state is going to have a hard time sending Jared up the river. Our resident legal analyst, Doug Mataconis of Outside the Beltway, has already done the digging and found that the Supreme Court came down on Jared’s side some time ago.

In Tinker v. Des Moines Independent Community School District 393 U.S. 501 (1969), the Court deal with the case of a group of students who were disciplined for taking part in a protest related to the Vietnam War by wearing black armbands to school. In its decision, the Court held that the students right to express their political beliefs as protected by the First Amendment outweighed any argument the school could make that its actions were necessary to keep discipline and order in the school:

The school officials banned and sought to punish petitioners for a silent, passive expression of opinion, unaccompanied by any disorder or disturbance on the part of petitioners. There is here no evidence whatever of petitioners interference, actual or nascent, with the schools work or of collision with the rights of other students to be secure and to be let alone. Accordingly, this case does not concern speech or action that intrudes upon the work of the schools or the rights of other students.

The full details of the court’s decision, along with Doug’s comments on this piece of legal insanity, are available at the link. In the meantime, I suppose we’ll have to deal with yet another side show as this all drags out. You might think that in this “enlightened age” of free speech, something like this would never come up, but apparently you’d be wrong. I can understand the officials at one relatively small middle school flying off the beam for a bit and blundering into this sort of error, but once the public spotlight was on the case, one would hope that the legal system would notice and shut it down. But now they’re setting themselves up for public embarrassment on a national level. And for the cherry on top, this is all happening on Joe Manchin’s home turf, just as he’s facing another battle in the public opinion polls over his gun control mistakes.

the case of a group of students who were disciplined for taking part in a protest related to the Vietnam War by wearing black armbands to school. I remember this. I was in jr high at the time. They called it Moratorium Day. Interesting how widespread it became in an age before cellphones, Twitter, I/M-ing, etc .A few of my classmates came to school wearing the black armbands. The principal (a WWII vet himself) and administrators b*tched and moaned but ultimately took no action saying it was their right to freely express themselves. Ironic how those who participated in this "silent protest" against the Vietnam War are now trying to suppress the same rights they so cherished for themselves.

I remember this. I was in jr high at the time. They called it Moratorium Day. Interesting how widespread it became in an age before cellphones, Twitter, I/M-ing, etc .A few of my classmates came to school wearing the black armbands. The principal (a WWII vet himself) and administrators b*tched and moaned but ultimately took no action saying it was their right to freely express themselves. Ironic how those who participated in this "silent protest" against the Vietnam War are now trying to suppress the same rights they so cherished for themselves.

The ONLY reason the subhuman worthless leftist vermin 'protested' the Vietnam war was to protect the communism there...so that they could one day have the 'right' to brutally oppress the rights of others.

He is being prosecuted for an Orwellian Thought Crime. Punishment: 1) Even if the charges are dropped, his family has been punished with thousands of dollars in attorney fees. 2) The boy's name has been permanently engraved in the Internet search engines and that **will** limit his future employment and educational opportunities. 3) And....A strong message has been sent to the other children and their parents that BIG BROTHER is out to get you for your thoughts. Please note that my tag line is Yuri Besmenov was a prophet. Posting HTML

If future companies all become left wing then the boy ought to leave the communist US forever and find a free country.

The school officials banned and sought to punish petitioners for a silent, passive expression of opinion, unaccompanied by any disorder or disturbance on the part of petitioners. There is here no evidence whatever of petitioners interference, actual or nascent, with the schools work or of collision with the rights of other students to be secure and to be let alone. Accordingly, this case does not concern speech or action that intrudes upon the work of the schools or the rights of other students.

Well, yeah, but in that case the students were lefties. You can't expect the same standards to be applied on behalf of a conservative. < /lib mode >

21
posted on 06/22/2013 2:05:29 PM PDT
by Still Thinking
(Freedom is NOT a loophole!)

Jared was asked to remove the shirt or turn it inside out by a secretary and then a teacher at Logan Middle School in Logan, W.Va. When he refused to do so he was brought to the principal, who called police.

The prosecutor should definitely be campaigned against for pursuing this case.

The school board and administrators are the ones that need removed. If they can't do that the people need to remove their children from that school. I won't hold my breath for any of the three things to happen and that should tell us what we are really up against in this country.

30
posted on 06/22/2013 11:44:39 PM PDT
by itsahoot
(It is not so much that history repeats, but that human nature does not change.)

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